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Multiple-Meaning Words

A multiple-meaning word is spelled and said the same way but means different things: a bat flies at night, and you hit a ball with a bat. Context is the only clue, which is why these words are such good reading practice.

Here are 124 multiple-meaning words from past ClueBy puzzles, each with a real example sentence for every meaning. Use them as a reference, or make a printable worksheet below.

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Students read each sentence and write the missing word. Every word appears in several sentences, each time with a different meaning.

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Word bank
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Multiple-Meaning Words

Name: ____________________Date: __________

Write the missing word from the word bank in each sentence. Each word is used more than once, with a different meaning each time.

Word bank: vault · racket · press · cold · mine · capital · court · shower

  1. We took cover from the thunder ________________.
  2. She's sitting on a gold ________________.
  3. Manchester University ________________ is the university's academic publishing house.
  4. The ________________ found him guilty of stealing money.
  5. I haven't touched a tennis ________________ in years.
  6. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  7. Beijing is the ________________ of China.
  8. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  9. The ceiling is a plaster ________________ painted with stars.
  10. I met an old friend of ________________ the other day.
  11. Did you ________________ the button?
  12. A second agreement was made due to the large amount of available ________________.
  13. The water is too ________________.
  14. The ball is in your ________________.
  15. Lukas kept the diamonds in a locked ________________.
  16. He was blown up by a land ________________.
  17. When a clown is made king, the ________________ becomes a circus.
  18. Champaud competed in the parallel bars, ________________, and pommel horse events.
  19. He's taking a ________________ right now.
  20. The function of the ________________ is to provide the common people with facts.
  21. He hit the ball with his ________________.
  22. The beginning of a sentence starts with a ________________ letter.
  23. The dagger's metal was presumably from the same meteor ________________.
  24. Our cat is sitting in the apple tree, and the birds are making a ________________.

Sentences from ClueBy, Tatoeba (CC BY 2.0 FR) and Common Voice (CC0). clueby.com

Answer key

  1. shower — rain
  2. mine — for digging
  3. press — a publisher
  4. court — of law
  5. racket — for tennis
  6. cold — an illness
  7. capital — a city
  8. cold — the Cold War
  9. vault — an arched ceiling
  10. mine — belonging to me
  11. press — to push
  12. capital — money
  13. cold — not warm
  14. court — for sport
  15. vault — a safe
  16. mine — an explosive
  17. court — of a king
  18. vault — in gymnastics
  19. shower — to wash
  20. press — newspapers
  21. racket — for tennis
  22. capital — a big letter
  23. shower — a meteor shower
  24. racket — a loud noise

Multiple-meaning words list

Tick up to 10 words to build a worksheet with just those words.

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Frequently asked questions

What are multiple-meaning words?

Words with the same spelling and pronunciation but more than one meaning, like bark (of a dog or of a tree) or bank (for money or of a river). You can only tell which meaning is meant from the rest of the sentence.

Are multiple-meaning words the same as homonyms?

Mostly, yes. Teachers often use "multiple-meaning words" and "homonyms" for the same idea. Homophones are different: they sound alike but are spelled differently, like flour and flower.

Are the worksheets free?

Yes. Make and print as many as you like for home or classroom use. Each sheet has its own link, so you can print the same one again.

Where do the words come from?

From past ClueBy puzzles, a daily game where you sort twelve sentences by their missing word. A new puzzle every day adds four more words to this list.

Sentences from ClueBy, Tatoeba (CC BY 2.0 FR) and Common Voice (CC0). clueby.com